Renault Samsung sales surge 2.5-fold on-year in Jan.

Renault Samsung Motor Co., the local unit of French automaker Renault S.A., said Monday its January sales jumped by more than 150 percent from a year earlier, bolstered by strong overseas sales.

A total of 16,784 vehicles were sold by Renault Samsung last month, up 150.6 percent from the 6,698 units from the year before, the company said in a statement.

Outgoing shipments, in particular, jumped by more than fivefold to 11,045 units in the same period, with sales of the Rogue crossover sport utility vehicle (SUV) taking up 75.9 percent at 8,380 units, according to the carmaker.

Sales on the homefront advanced 27.5 percent on-year to 5,739 units. The QM3 small crossover SUV saw the highest sales growth, soaring by over nine times to 1,642 units from the amount sold in the previous year.

For all of last year, Renault Samsung saw its sales at home and abroad jump 33.3 percent and 26.6 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. The automaker said its next goal is to become the No. 3 car manufacturer in terms of domestic sales by 2016. (Yonhap)